Sunday, 6th of September, 2009

Tonight ranged from IDM & ambient electronica through folktronica and drone to noise.
LISTEN AGAIN link at bottom of playlist.

Started tonight with Sydney electronic artist Ryzla, who brings us a gorgeous piece of ambient electronica, quite unlike the breakbeat stuff he’s generally been turning in.Lusine gives us a beautiful piece of electronica with cut-up female vocals, not unlike his online hit “Two Dots”, which also appears on his new album.
Two of Anticon’s finest, Themselves & Why?, team up for a song which you can download from Pitchfork (see below).
I played three tracks tonight from Italian duo Tellaro, whose new one I’ve been excited about since I read it in 2nd rec’s recent newsletter. It’s a wonderful mix of The Books-style laptop folk and Notwist-style indietronica. Highly recommended.
Couple more tracks from Sydney band Grace Before Meals, whose double EP has crept into my subconscious and refused to leave.
Meanwhile, Melbourne’s The Ancients have a new album on beloved Leeds label Moteer, and it’s a beauty. Mostly the work of Jonathan Mitchell on mostly guitar and vocals, it’s got a classic sound and songs that just work just right.
Meanwhile, a Kansas native with an Aussie connection via Preservation Records, Aaron Martin, has a stunning new EP out on boutique UK label Under The Spire. Combining his cello, guitar and other instruments with a smattering of vocals and studio techniques, it’s possibly his best effort yet. Just in time for that 3″ to arrive, John Part Timer sent me his remixes of Aaron for the next “Aaron Martin vs Part Timer” release, which Under The Spire will be putting out at some point. They’re equally fantastic, and currently exclusive to Utility Fog.
I’m deeply embarrassed to have missed the boat last year with Peter Broderick, but am making up for it now. The Float album on Type may be primarily (post-)classical arrangements, with Peter playing everything – violin, viola, cello, piano and much more – but there are some really different moments too, with cavernous drones and drumkit edging in here and there.
Up next, Benn Jordan aka The Flashbulb has once again taken the initiative to upload his own album to the various filesharing services, with an explanatory html file that includes the words “All I ask is that you include this file if you share/upload/seed the release.” Louisiana Mourning is a tribute to Telefon Tel Aviv’s Charlie Cooper, whose death earlier this year had a reverberant impact across the music scene. Jordan’s always been more than just another drill’n’bass artist (although he does that genre very well, as the following track’s detailed programming and heartstring-pulling melody exhibit), but this release is simple acoustic guitar with occasional strings and ambient electronics – and it’s really beautiful.
The more electronic Flashbulb track was followed by a reprise of Jega’s new album, and another classic old IDM tune of his. AFX continued the theme of children’s voices in IDM, while Shady Lane gave us the most drill’n’bassy track from his mostly very indie-sounding new album.
“St. Powers” is the centrepiece of Noveller’s debut album, Red Rainbows. Sarah Lipstate can do squalling feedback with the best of them, but this 14 minute track focuses on repeated guitar motifs and drones in amongst the noise. I could put it on repeat for hours.
I’m afraid the only connection between the above track and Beth Jeans Houghton’s is that both are female artists – lame, but the segue was surprisingly apt. Houghton gives us another tune from her EP on Static Caravan, a sunny piece of laid-back-folk-meets-up-beat-pop.
I got hold of the next installment of New Weird Australia a couple of days before the general public. The next two tracks are from Volume Two, which has just gone live now – free download! Oceans hail from Taswegia, and remind me strangely of Mirrored Silver Sea – perfectly poised drones and loops. Sam Price combines a drum dirge with malfunctioning computer – nice!
And we had another track from Morning Stalker’s excellent hellosQuarerecordings release, and the title track from epic45’s latest mini-masterpice.royalchord’s album should be exploding on us shortly, and from the likes of the couple of tracks I’ve heard, it’s a doozy – drum machines & subtle electronics with perfect acoustic folkpop tunes. Can’t wait! Followed them with another cut from Caethua’s brilliant double CD on Preservation.
Finally, something from HEALTH’s second album – noise and kraut-disco combine in a pretty exhilirating way, with ethereal vocals. More next week!

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email: utilityfog at frogworth dot com
Utility Fog teeters on the cusp between acoustic and electronic, organic and digital. Constantly changing and rearranging, this aural cloud of nanotech consumes genres and spits them out in new forms. Whether cataloguing the jungle resurgence, tracking the ups and downs of noise and drone, or unearthing the remnants of glitch and folktronica, all is contextualised within artist & genre histories for a fulfilling sonic journey.
Since all these genre names are already pretty ridiculous, we thought we'd coin a new one. So "postfolkrocktronica" it is. Wear it.